Jeanie Buss’s fight to maintain control of the Los Angeles Lakers just grew significantly steeper. As the acting governor scrambles to consolidate enough equity to keep her leadership position under NBA guidelines, a critical avenue has officially been shut down: billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong is keeping his four percent minority stake right where it is.
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Facing a mutiny from her own siblings, Buss needs to acquire a larger share of the franchise to reach the league’s 15% ownership threshold for team governors. However, NBA analyst Andy Kamenetzky recently highlighted the massive uphill climb she faces, explicitly ruling out Soon-Shiong as a potential seller.
“She has to then A) raise the liquidity, and then B) find somebody within the organization that is willing to sell to her,” Kamenetzky explained on Locked on Lakers today. “She can cross Patrick Soon-Shiong off the list, his four percent, he has gone on record through his attorney, who is somehow nicknamed Tiger, not a joke. But his four percent is not on the market, like, absolutely.”
Kamenetzky noted that Soon-Shiong’s strong ties to the incoming majority ownership group make a sale to Buss highly unlikely.
“He has apparently a really good friendship with Bob Iger and Josh Kushner and he is not interested in selling,” he continued. “I would not be, this is speculation on my part. I want to make this clear. However, it doesn’t feel like reckless speculation. I have a feeling there could be a memo inside that building from Kushner and Iger, saying we would prefer you not sell these.”
Though Dr. Soon-Shiong made it clear he won’t sell to Iger and Kushner either, he is inclined to work with them.
Jeanie’s frantic search for equity stems from Mark Walter’s shocking decision to sell the Lakers to former Disney CEO Bob Iger and venture capitalist Josh Kushner at a staggering, record-breaking $12.5 billion valuation after just 14 months of ownership. Their original deal kept Jeanie as team governor while her younger two brothers were fired from their front office positions.
Following Walter’s exit, five of the six Buss siblings — Johnny, Jimmy, Janie, Joey, and Jesse — opted to cash out their collective portion of the family’s 17.8% stake to the new owners, effectively ending almost five decades of Buss family ownership. Jeanie stands as the lone holdout.
Her lawyer, Adam Streisand, is aggressively contesting the maneuver, citing a 2017 court ruling that theoretically prevents the sale of Buss family shares without unanimous approval from co-trustees Jeanie, Janie, and Joey. But if her siblings succeed, Jeanie will be left with just under 3% ownership, 12% short of the NBA’s governance minimum.
While Iger told the California Post he intends to honor Walter’s agreement to keep Buss as governor for at least five years, he ominously added, “If something changes, then it changes.”
Jeanie is reportedly working to the 15% mark, but Soon-Shiong’s refusal severely limits her leverage. The 74-year-old medical innovator, who boasts a net worth exceeding $15 billion, originally bought his stake from Magic Johnson in 2010. His attorney, Chuck “Tiger” Kenworthy, confirmed to ESPN that Soon-Shiong is “absolutely not selling,” adding that they are “extremely excited” to join Iger and Kushner as active partners.
With Soon-Shiong firmly off the board, Jeanie is rapidly running out of lifelines. Her only other minority target would be real estate developer Ed Roski Jr., whose roughly 3% share would still leave her drastically short of the required equity to keep the Lakers’ throne.